The struggle of the reborn prince

While successfully capturing the camp of the Song Army, Xiao Hanli was a little puzzled. Could it be that the Song Army repeatedly defeated the Jurchens and regained countless lost territories in the past? Nor is it Jurchen's opponent, but he has to wonder if there is a fraud in it, but he can't grasp the point for a while.Now that it was getting late, it was not easy to pursue, and the camp of the Song army had been burned down. Their most urgent task was to quickly find a camp and prepare to camp.

Xiao Hanli selected the campsite near a hill called Isanna by the locals. This mountain is long and narrow, with a steep terrain and a flat top.Not far to the south of this mountain is another small mountain, Storey Mountain. There is a small pass between the two mountains, which is the only way to the North Court.To the east of the Liangshan Mountains is a wasteland of more than [-] miles from east to west and more than ten miles wide, which can be used for grazing.The wilderness stretches north to the edge of the desert, where there are tall sand dunes everywhere.To the south, it extends to the wind-eroded foothills of Maratha.

In the east is a seasonal river. Now the river dries up in the dry season, exposing a river bed about two feet deep. But it is also because of this river that water can be produced without digging very deep, which can provide sufficient drinking water for people and animals.The camp of the Liao army is on a high ground to the east of Isanna Mountain. Although it is convenient for grazing and water, the view to the north and south is blocked by sand dunes and mountains, so it is not wide enough.Only by constantly sending scouts to patrol the surroundings can the enemy's sneak attack be prevented and the camp's safety guaranteed.

But at this moment, Xiao Hanli's main focus is not on this, but on where the Song army fled. He led his guards to search in the northeast direction, in order to find out where the enemy army is gathering.Also because of the lack of wood, the Liao army was unable to build a camp.And here is relatively closed and easy to defend, and everyone is exhausted after chasing for another day.And the coach didn't say clearly, who doesn't want to be lazy.Besides, the newly defeated Song army would definitely not dare to attack the camp.So they neither dug a trench nor built a city, but sent rangers to patrol around the camp.

When night fell, Xiao Hanli returned to the camp, and before he could clean up the mess, he received a report from the scouts: there were a large number of Song army activities in the southeast, which made Xiao Hanli even more puzzled, thinking about the previous actions of the Song army. The performance is that pretending to be a pig and eating a tiger set up an ambush and lured him to this place.The lingering thoughts made him sleepless all night, and the next morning, before dawn, he sent two thousand-man teams to search in the southeast direction.Further ascertain Song Jun's attempt.

Then Xiao Hanli, who was restless, sent two scouts to search in different directions one after another, looking for the escaped Song army.But the news brought back by these scouts did not dispel his doubts. Instead, he was overwhelmed by contradictory information, and it was impossible to find out the movements of the Song army, let alone their deployment and plans.After spending a day in anxiety, Xiao Hanli assassinated in the early morning of the third day suddenly received a distress letter sent back from the two thousand-man teams searching the southeast, saying that their camp was attacked by people who did not know where they were last night. The Song army is surrounded, and now the offensive is fierce, and reinforcements are requested.

After receiving the report, Xiao Hanli did not dare to neglect, and hastily ordered Yelu Hongda, the former commander of the army, to lead [-] soldiers from his headquarters to reinforce.But now he still couldn't judge Song Jun's intentions.Moreover, his whereabouts are uncertain, and he may be ambushed by them if he uses troops rashly.Therefore, he did not move the camp, but chose to station here, and waited for the exact news from the Song army before deploying the next move.At this time, the number of Liao troops in the camp has been greatly reduced by nearly half!

…………

Compared with the high-profile attack of the Western Liao Army.Song Jun avoided fighting and seemed much more low-key and extremely calm. This was actually Zhao Li's intention.When he received the letter of persuasion sent by Xiao Hanli, he realized that the Liao Kingdom had rejected a peaceful settlement.A war between the two armies is inevitable.So he ordered all ministries to prepare for battle, but not to attack rashly.Never firing the 'first shot', he did so to show that the war was entirely initiated by the Liao Kingdom.The Song army responded passively.

But no one seems to have noticed that it was Zhao Li's "weakness" in the previous stage that made the Liao army believe that the problem could be solved through war.In fact, the strength in Zhao Li's hands is not to be underestimated. He has two infantry brigades, half an artillery brigade, 5000 coalition troops of various ethnic groups, and more than [-] supply troops. The total strength reaches more than [-]. In terms of strength, it did not lose to the Liao army, but had a slight advantage.

To outsiders, the Ministry of Liao Zhao belonged to a standard miscellaneous army. They believed that there were only two imperial infantry brigades and half an artillery brigade with combat effectiveness, but they were far behind in terms of mobility. There is no advantage in fighting on open grasslands.Even if you win, you can't run with two legs and can't run with four legs, and you can't seriously injure the enemy to expand the results of the battle. The best way is to use the advantage of firearms to consume the enemy's vital strength by relying on the city's defense, but it just hits a swollen face to make you fat. Out of Yanbo City, the only stronghold on the grassland.

Secondly, those with combat effectiveness are the [-] Xie Congjun army. They were drawn from the nomadic peoples who were called Fan in the Song Dynasty. They have combat effectiveness. , and even cause chaos in battle.Compared with the Tuque people in the Xiliao Army who also used cold weapons to fight, they were inferior to their opponents in individual combat capabilities, and they did not have an advantage in melee battles, so they could not become a force that determined the outcome.

As for the supply troops, in the eyes of ordinary people, they can't be regarded as an army at all. Not only do they have zero combat power, but they move slowly, and they are also the most vulnerable troops. It is the most troublesome of the various teams, but it is also an indispensable burden.Therefore, in terms of combat power alone, there is only the possibility of subtracting points, and there is no possibility of adding points.

After the division of troops, Zhao Li was very clear about the situation of his troops - more than enough defense, not enough attack.The enemy can't help them by defending the city, but the same passive defense can't achieve the emperor's intention. It's difficult to force Xiliao to give up the purpose of armed intervention in Gaochang, but it can't be severely injured so that the two sides will form a deadly feud, so that The road to future cooperation is blocked.After some thinking, Zhao Li believed that as long as any army is dispatched reasonably and makes the best use of its resources, it will be able to exert its maximum combat effectiveness. Otherwise, there would be so many battles in the world where one wins more with less.

From a comprehensive consideration, the two infantry brigades of the imperial army system should have the strongest combat effectiveness in the Song army. They can attack and defend, and the shortcomings of poor mobility can be made up for by pre-setting ambushes and using terrain to limit the enemy's troops; secondly, in the eyes of outsiders The supply brigade with no combat power, although they are logistical units, can be equipped with the same equipment as combat units and have received the same training. They are fully capable of garrison and defense tasks, and can also be used as a reserve team.As for the state troops, they come from the border defense forces. Since they are stationed in border hotspots all the year round, they must always guard against the enemy's surprise attacks. They have the highest level of combat readiness and the most rigorous training.

On the contrary, the combat effectiveness of those tribal armies that are both people and soldiers are at the end of the Western Expeditionary Army. Due to the natural behavior of the people on weekdays, it is difficult to restrain them, and there is a problem of poor communication in the command of different tribes.But Zhao Li thought that these were minor problems that could not be solved. The important thing was that the tribal army, as the only cavalry force under him, took on the heavy responsibility of breaking through the enemy's defense line.

When the cavalry broke through the formation, the frontal cavalry could only fight the enemy in place after sprinting. However, compared with the main Turkic army in the Western Liao Army, the Turkic people were better at single-handed combat. The physical strength of the Mongolian horse and the height of the Mongolian horse are disadvantageous. In this situation, it is simply a cavalry nightmare, and it is easy to be completely wiped out after being surrounded by the enemy.Of course, this is not what Zhao Li wants to see, so it must be resolved...

After Gao Chong led the main force to leave, Zhao Li went out to hunt every day. In fact, he didn't have that kind of leisure. He used this rare time to turn around a hundred miles around Yanbo City. Where there is a ditch, where there is a seat On the mountain, I know where I can set up an ambush and where I can camp.The reason for allowing the soldiers to behave mischievously in the city and not to improve their military equipment is to show the spies of Xiliao. After that, they actively negotiated with Xiliao and withdrew from Yanbo City to express that they did not want to be enemies with Xiliao, and of course they were also intentional. Show weakness to paralyze the enemy's thoughts.

After the war started, Zhao Li used the Mongols to stop the Western Liao army not only to give them a bad impression, but also to practice the new tactics he had figured out.In his opinion, the only thing that the Mongol army can have an advantage over the Tuque people is the bows and arrows in their hands. Over the years, the imperial army of the Song Dynasty has replaced them with firearms, and the selected ones are reserved for the state army to use. There are also large quantities piled up in warehouses, which are used by the emperor to aid friendly troops.

The Mughals, as the main force against the Jurchens, of course also became the object of assistance. The armor on their bodies and the bow in their hands were all made in Song Dynasty.However, the riding bows and step bows of the Song army are universal, and their range is farther than that of the Xiliao army, and they are more powerful.The formation with the two wings protruding from the front is the Yanyue Formation of the Song Army. In this way, when the enemy is attacked on three sides, he will inevitably suffer heavy losses under the dense arrow rain. Most of the soldiers in the front row will fall down, so as to make up for the soldiers in the back row bit creates an obstacle.

When the Mongolian cavalry rushed to the front, when the enemy failed to arrange the formation, it meant that both the infantry and the cavalry were almost stationary, and the Mongolian cavalry used the huge impact of the horses to crush the enemy, whether it was an individual soldier or a formation. They were all torn apart, and they took the opportunity to break through.In today's battle, the Western Liao army is too strong, and the Mughals are not yet proficient in using new tactics, so they did not achieve the expected effect, but achieved the purpose of luring the enemy... (to be continued...)